


A Hero Her Own Size

by learnyourlessonswell



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-04
Updated: 2021-02-04
Packaged: 2021-03-16 01:41:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,944
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29199291
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/learnyourlessonswell/pseuds/learnyourlessonswell
Summary: What would have happened to Chat Blanc if Bunnyx hadn't gone back? If she had found her own Ladybug to fix the timeline?
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Kudos: 24





	A Hero Her Own Size

Something was wrong. Bunnyx knew it. Something was off with the timeline. The Burrow told her: a terrible akuma. Ladybug gone. Chat Noir akumatized. And it seemed he knew Ladybug’s identity.

Shit.

She couldn’t send a team. What if he revealed their identities?   
She couldn’t send Adrien. She couldn’t do that to him.  
And his akuma had to be captured.

So, only Ladybug could fight him. There would be no backup, only her, standing by, ready to find another plan, another Ladybug, ready if it all went to shit. 

She couldn’t send a teenage Ladybug. She would transform back too quickly, would be too scatterbrained, would crack if he called her Marinette or mentioned his father.   
She couldn’t send an older Ladybug. Though she would be stronger, would be faster, would be able to handle him mentioning their civilian identities, there were rules. She wasn’t allowed to travel to the future, only to the past. That way, she knew what had happened.   
No.  
The only Ladybug she could call upon was her own. 

********************************************************************************************************

The bedside table vibrated as Marinette’s phone rang.

“Hey, Alix, what’s up?”

“Adrien. Where’s Marinette? I need Ladybug.”

“She’s upstairs with Emma- wait, what? Why? I’m not seeing anything on the news. Did you see an akuma? Where are you?”

“Not here. Not now. It’s a timeline thing. We need her to fix it.”

“Can’t I do it?”

“I’m sorry, but no. Only Ladybug can. It’s…. just tell Marinette to come over ASAP, okay?”

“Sure, but-”

“Thanks, A. Bye.”

She hung up, cutting off his good-bye.

********************************************************************************************************

Ladybug stepped out of the Burrow, confused by her surroundings. Bunnyx hadn’t told her anything, only that there was an akuma she alone could fight. And this- this was nothing short of devastation. Though the sky was a bright blue, not a cloud in it, the rest of what she could see wasn’t quite so beautiful. The Eiffel Tower was pure white and had topped onto its side. Water flooded the entire city, over the roofs of even some of the tallest buildings. Over it all, the moon hung in the sky, divided into two. As she looked around at the devastation, a faint tune reached her ears. It sounded like… Adrien?

“Little kitty on a roof”

That wasn’t Adrien. But… it was? 

“All alone without his lady.”

The voice sounded like him, not as he was now. No, this sounded like the videos of him she had from lycée, from years ago. She followed his voice and spotted a feline figure, clothed in white. White? Wait.

Chat Noir.

No.

Not noir.

Blanc.

Akuma.

Chat.

Adrien. 

Akuma.

Shit.

“Chat?”

The figure turned. It was him, but… it wasn’t. His costume, normally black as night, was now white as snow. So was his hair. And his eyes… those beautiful green eyes, the eyes she’d loved for so long. They weren’t green anymore. No, instead they were blue, bright blue, bluer than the sky. And on top of all of it, he appeared to be no more than seventeen years old.

“Milady?” he asked, prowling in circles.

“Oh,” she breathed, “you’re just a kitty, aren’t you?”

“You’re not my lady,” he said. “You’re…” He trailed off.

She had changed since her days in lycée, she supposed. Now twenty-six, Marinette had begun wearing her hair down more often, but as Ladybug, it was tied up into a sensible ponytail. Her costume had changed, too. She had proper boots, now, and a large patch of black had emerged on her abdomen, covering her vital organs. 

“My lady is gone.” Tears began welling in his eyes as, numbly, he sank to his knees.

She knelt down next to him and wrapped him in her arms. 

“Hey,” she murmured into the top of his head, “it’s gonna be okay. I’m here now. Let me help you. We’re gonna fix it, okay?”

“Of course,” he mumbled back. “We’re gonna fix everything.” His voice strengthened. “Now that you’re here-” he began screaming “-and you’re going to GIVE ME YOUR MIRACULOUS!”

He lunged for her earrings and quickly, she caught his wrists, halting the motion. 

“Tell me what’s wrong, Chat.”

“I’m sorry, milady.” Her eyes narrowed. “Could you please hand me your Miraculous? Chat Blanc has gotten into some mischief.”

She pulled his hands to her chest, so tight he could feel her heart beating. “You don’t need my Miraculous, kitten. You need me to de-akumatize you. Let me help you.”

A single tear rolled down his cheek.

“Save. Me,” he managed to choke out.

“Oh,” she whispered, relaxing her grip on his wrists. “Poor little kitty. Tell me, do you remember where the akuma went?”

He ripped his hands from her grip and pointed to his heart. “Here,” he spat into her face, “but it’s already broken.” And, once again, he lunged for her earrings. She backflipped away from him, landing in a fighting stance, ready to strike, and his face contorted into rage.

He screamed. “Now, you’re breaking more than my heart, Marinette!”

Marinette? But they hadn’t revealed their identities until they were engaged!

“What? How? I hadn’t told you anything!”

He didn’t seem to hear her. 

“Give me your Miraculous so I can make it all go back to the way it was!”

“Chat, I-” she began.

He interrupted with a pure white beam. “Mega-Cataclysm!” She barely leapt out of the way in time.

“Chat, what happened?” Maybe if she could figure out where it all went wrong, Bunnyx could set the timeline straight. 

“Things were purr-fect until Hawkmoth found out about everything. Once the cat is out of the bag, it’s only a matter of time until everyone knows.”

She had to chuckle at that. Of course he would still pun as an akuma. 

“It was our love that did this to the world, milady.”

“No,” she stepped out from behind the pillar. “It just wasn’t the right time. Adrien, I promise, everything is going to be all right, just… let me help you!”

“Or you can give me your Miraculous!”

She tackled him. 

“Time to de-evili-'' She broke his baton. Nothing.

“Looking for my akuma, milady?” he taunted, and shot a Cataclysm at her. She dodged, he shot again, and the two found themselves standing on a beam, several meters apart, both in a fighting stance. “There’s a faster way to make this end, you know. You just need to hand over YOUR MIRACULOUS.”

Like that was going to happen. 

Ladybug called for her Lucky Charm and into her hands dropped… a beret?

Chat didn’t even seem to notice. “You know that by merging our Miraculous together, we would be granted one wish.” He stalked towards her, Cataclysm growing on his fingertips. “Any wish we wanted. Do you know what my wish would be? To fix everything. So we could be in love again. And have a hamster, too.” He reached for her ear. “You’ve always dreamed of having one. We’d call it-”

His speech was cut off as she quickly disarmed him, took him down, and grabbed his belt.

“Time to de-evili-” Nothing again.

He rose from the ground. “You’re not even listening. You don’t understand.”

“I do, kitty,” she assured him. “It’s going to be okay. You’re going to be okay. We’re going to be okay. Do you know how I know? Because in the timeline I’m from, I have a wonderful husband who loves chocolate croissants and puns and me. I have a beautiful daughter who probably knows more about superheroes than any normal three-year-old should. And I have a hamster.” She let out a small laugh. “And I want you to have that, too, kitty.”

Wordless, he flicked a Cataclysm at her feet. The beam beneath her gave way, sending her tumbling into the icy waters flooding the city below.

*******************************************************************************************************

She pulled out her yo-yo. Though her supersuit would allow her to stay here in the cold water safely, she needed a bit of assistance breathing. Down she swam to Trocadéro Square, where the Eiffel Tower had stood. There, something caught her eye. A statue of herself at age seventeen, and next to her, one of… Hawkmoth? Both statues seemed to be made of coal, and as she swam closer, a realization hit her. 

This wasn’t a statue.

This was her. 

Cataclysmed.

Marinette reached out to touch her younger self’s cheek, but the ashen version of herself crumbled at her touch and dissolved into millions of tiny pieces, all floating away with the current. 

What had he done?

********************************************************************************************************

She emerged from the water, landing behind him.

“Chat,” she asked, a tremor audible in her voice, “what happened?”

Not what did you do? 

“I didn’t mean to.”

It wasn’t his fault.

She was going to murder Gabriel.

He turned.

“But you won’t help me fix it.”

“Chat, I’m trying to-”

“You don’t love me! She doesn’t love me! Didn’t love me. There’s no point.” He thrust a clawed hand into the air, conjuring up a new Cataclysm. “I might as well destroy it. You, me, the memories, everything. All of it!”

“Chat, no! You know that’s not true! I’m living proof!”

The Cataclysm grew. He wasn’t listening.

She had to try something drastic. 

“FINE!” she shouted. “You can have it. I’ll give you my Miraculous, Chat Noir”

His hand closed, and the Cataclysm disappeared.

“I’m not Chat Noir anymore.” He was surprisingly serene as he flicked the bell hanging from his neck. “I’m Chat Blanc.”

Ladybug approached. For the first time, she realized, she stood eye-to-eye with him. He’d always been taller, but now, of course, she had nine years on him. She placed her hand on his cheek, and he leaned into it. “You’ll always be Chat Noir to me, kitty,” she said, grazing her thumb across the bottom of his mask as her other hand moved from his shoulder to grab the bell off his collar. Releasing him, she punched it, freeing the akuma from inside.

Relief flooded her as she said the same seven words as every other time.

“No more evil-doing for you, little akuma.”

And caught it.

The now-purified akuma flew away, leaving only Ladybug and a much younger Chat Noir, until-

“Yes! Yes! You did it!”

Bunnyx.

A very confused Chat Noir spoke up. “Marinette? What happened?”

Startled, Ladybug turned back to the younger version of the partner she knew so well.

“What’s wrong?”

She sighed. “You’re still calling me Marinette. You aren’t supposed to know yet. That means, if I use the Miraculous Cure now…”

“You’ll still know,” Bunnyx finished.

Ladybug looked intensely at her Lucky Charm. A beret. She hadn’t used it in the fight. And something seemed awfully familiar about- 

Oh.

She rushed forward to hug Chat Noir.

“I’m going to fix everything, kitty,” she said before hurrying back to the Burrow. “I promise.”

He watched her go. “I know.”

“Wait!”

Ladybug poked her head out of the Burrow. “Hm?”

“Does this mean…” 

She could tell what he was trying to say. “Worry about your own timeline, kitten.” She laughed, and the portal closed.

********************************************************************************************************

“So, what’s the beret about?”

“Alix, do you remember the day Rose bet you Princess Twinklepeach I wouldn’t leave that gift for Adrien? Saint Athanases Day?”

“Of course I remember. You beefed it. What has this got to do with a beret, though?”

“The gift I had made for him, it was a beret.”

“Okay,” Alix was obviously still confused. “But how does that cause this?”

“I think… In this timeline, I mean... I think he might have seen me leave his room.”

“Wait, you mean you broke in as Ladybug to leave the gift?”

Ladybug laughed. “Shut up and open the portal.”


End file.
